The World Health Organisation (WHO) says there is now \u201cconsistent evidence\u201d that the Omicron variant was outpacing Delta, as COVID-19 continues to account for around 50,000 deaths worldwide every week.<\/p>\n
WHO Director General, Tedros Ghebreyesus told journalists at the agency\u2019s Headquarters in Geneva that it was also more likely that people who had been vaccinated, or recovered from the virus, could be infected, or re-infected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere can be no doubt that increased social mixing over the holiday period in many countries will lead to increased cases, overwhelm health systems and more deaths.”<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of us are sick of this pandemic. All of us want to spend time with friends and family. All of us want to get back to normal.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fastest way to do that is for all of us \u2013 leaders and individuals \u2013 to make the difficult decisions that must be made to protect ourselves and others\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said delaying or cancelling events, was the responsible thing to do: \u201cAn event cancelled is better than a life cancelled. It\u2019s better to cancel now and celebrate later, than to celebrate now and grieve later.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 3.3 million people have lost their lives to COVID-19 this year \u2013 more deaths than from HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined in 2020, and Africa was now facing a steep wave of infections, driven largely by the Omicron variant.<\/p>\n
Just a month ago, Africa was reporting its lowest number of cases in 18 months, Ghebreyesus reminded reporters on Monday, whereas last week, it reported the fourth-highest number of cases in a single week so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us want to be here again in 12 months\u2019 time, talking about missed opportunities, continued inequity, or new variants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The director general emphasised that for the pandemic to end in 2022, \u201cwe must end inequity, by ensuring 70 per cent of the population of every country is vaccinated by the middle of next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Around the world, the WHO was working with countries to restore and sustain essential health services disrupted by the pandemic.<\/p>\n
According to new data released this year, 23 million children missed out on routine vaccines in 2020, the largest number in over a decade, increasing risks from preventable diseases like measles and polio, the UN correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported.<\/p>\n
Progress is, however, still being made in many other areas of healthcare and medicine.<\/p>\n
Five countries were able to introduce the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) to prevent cervical cancer, and a further nine are planning to introduce it over the next six months, and in September, WHO launched a global road map to defeat meningitis by 2030.<\/p>\n
The pandemic has also caused setbacks in the agency\u2019s efforts to defeat the world\u2019s leading infectious diseases, with an estimated 14 million more malaria cases and 47 thousand more malaria deaths in 2020, compared to 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, WHO certified two countries,\u00a0 China and El Salvador, as malaria-free this year, and a further 25 are on track to end malaria transmission by 2025\u201d Ghebreyesus said.<\/p>\n
He said the WHO also made an historic recommendation for broad use of the world\u2019s first malaria vaccine.<\/p>\n
Services for non-communicable diseases have also been hit, with more than half of countries surveyed between June and October, reporting disruptions to services for diabetes, cancer screening and treatment, and management of hypertension.<\/p>\n
Summing up a tumultuous year, he also noted that several important steps had been taken to strengthen the global health architecture, and WHO itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe launched the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin; We broke ground on the WHO Academy in Lyon; We established the WHO BioHub System\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In early December, Member States agreed to negotiate the world\u2019s first new agreement on pandemic preparedness and response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have also taken decisive steps to address instances of sexual exploitation and abuse and to make sure that our people meet the high standards that we, and our Member States, expect of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took decisive steps to address sexual exploitation, following shocking revelations of alleged abuse committed by some WHO staff during the deadly tenth Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo” he said.<\/p>\n
\u201c2022 must be the year we end the pandemic,\u201d said the director general, but to prevent a future disaster on the same scale, all countries must invest in resilient health systems, build on primary care, with universal health coverage as the goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people can\u2019t access the services they need, or can\u2019t afford them, individuals, families, communities and entire societies are put at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the year ahead, WHO is committed to doing everything in our power to end the pandemic, and to beginning a new era in global health \u2013 an era in which health is at the centre of every country\u2019s development plans\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says there is now \u201cconsistent evidence\u201d that the Omicron variant was outpacing Delta, as COVID-19 continues to account for around 50,000 deaths worldwide every week. WHO Director General, Tedros Ghebreyesus told journalists at the agency\u2019s Headquarters in Geneva that it was also more likely that people who had been vaccinated, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":5381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign"],"yoast_head":"\n